At least four people were killed on Monday when a high-rise building collapsed in Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos. Several more were injured, as the disaster control authority announced. According to the rescue workers, dozens of people are still believed to be under the rubble – the exact number is unclear, however.
28-year-old bricklayer Wisdom John told an AFP reporter that more than 50 people worked in the 21-story building, which was still under construction, on Monday. He was able to get himself to safety in time and got away with a few cuts. 26-year-old worker Peter Ajagbe told AFP that he saw ten bodies as he climbed over the rubble. “One of my partners is dead.”
Lagos State Police Commissioner Hakeem Olusegun Odumosu said it was too early to guess what caused the collapse. Dozens of angry residents gathered at the scene of the accident. Many wept and criticized the slow pace of the rescue operations. Several soldiers held back a crowd of onlookers.
AFP correspondents watched a yellow excavator push several slabs of concrete aside. “I feel so bad because the people in there have families,” said worker Latif Shittu. He had just bought groceries when the skyscraper collapsed.
Ikoyi is one of the more affluent residential and business districts in the metropolis of Lagos. Building collapses are not uncommon in Nigeria, as inferior materials are often used in construction and regulations are disregarded. In 2014, more than a hundred people were killed in the collapse of a church guest house in Lagos